The MPs launched an inquiry into online abuse after a petition Price launched “brought to Parliament an issue that has not been widely discussed”.

Price told ITV’s Peston on Sunday: “Harvey was getting racial abuse, they were mocking him, doing sex videos on him, putting him in t-shirts, and he’s got complex special needs – I’ve got five children but they always pick on him.

“I got two people arrested, (the police) seized all their computers, they seized everything, took them quite far, but then it got to the point where they can’t charge them with nothing because there’s nothing in place for it.”

She said she wants to introduce legislation called Harvey’s Law, and criticised a lack of social media security over protecting people from such abuse.

“If I said something on the street about someone, you’d get arrested or whatever, but why is it online it doesn’t seem strong enough?

“If you go to buy a car, you need to give your address, you need to have some kind of security, and they need to do that online.”

The Petitions Committee will look at the impact of online abuse – particularly on people with disabilities – responsibility for protection, whether technology companies are doing enough, whether the law needs to be changed, how to define online abuse and what support is given to victims.